I was just wondering what you guys did to join your wire connections in things such as cd players, remote starts, leds, keyless entry systems, alarms etc. I always solder but it seems everytime that a friend or I buy a car it's always some halfassed tape job. And there is almost always at least a couple of exposed wires.

I personally solder then tape enough so there's no chance of it getting exposed.

ALWAYS solder wire connections. That way you'll have peace of mind that nothing is going to come undone and cause a problem.

My dad is an electrical engineer, and taught me to do it right, but my friends dad taught me WHY to do it right. He did the typical half assed wiring job to an amplifier under the passenger seat when he was young. He came back to his car with the interior burned right up. Fire started under the passenger seat, and pretty well incinerated the whole interior. Write off.

There are many good reasons to spend an extra 10 minutes with the stereo wiring.

I solder, then tape

I solder, then use heat shrink tubing- I personally hate electrical tape for protecting wires... I use it only when putting loom on, or bundling wires.

Andrew

If I am putting in a cd player I just tape it off and make sure there are no open wires that could short out later on. I don't like to solder much, I'd rather use the butt connections.

Forgot to add... most places like best buy, etc, will just use crimp connectors when installing a stereo... They look like wire nuts, but are crimp on instead.

Speaking of which... When I get a new old car, I always hate finding wire nuts everywhere... Why not just do the damn job correctly and never worry about it? But I digress...

Andrew

There are a lot of people who dont know how to do it correctly, or that there is anything wrong with crimps, wirenuts and the like. If the stereo turns on after the job is done, it was done right... Right?

If you crimp the way I crimp....no need to solder...

For small wiring, quick and easy, butt connectors work great. It's what I've used for every stereo install I've done. Although I was considering heat shrink and soldering for when I had tried installing that pioneer (still sitting in the box), I ended up using butt connectors.

Now bigger connections, 4 gauge and up, solder terminal and a solder slug is what I am going to use from now on. Hard to get a good crimp on terminals of that size, unless you pay a lot of money for a heavy duty crimper. But in the end, the solder and heat shrink looks much better than a crimp.

TOC Admin
Brando

I work at a Motorola Service Center and am a Certified Electronics Technician. I have known how to solder for 30 years and that is the way we repair electronic equipment, HOWEVER, our install department uses mechanical crimps exclusively with the exception of sometimes the primary 12vdc from the battery ( the big 30 amp inline fuses). They have had a good reputation for over 50 years. Our company has serviced many law enforcement agencies over the years and the install department does many, many, many cop cars. The lesson? Do either one the right way and it lasts, although I still hate electrical tape because it gets sticky and nasty with age, they do use it occasionaly over the few solders they do make. I would rather they use heat shrink. It's the best and cleanest way I think.

hell yeah! i use wire butts, and always give a good tug to check the crimp, then tape. a nice pair of crimpers helps too